Thursday, November 23, 2006

Ready for Thanksgiving...

So we are all set for not only our first married Thanksgiving but also our first Thanksgiving away from home - while this is a little sad we are so excited about the new traditions we are starting! This year we are having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with our American friends, Mike and Lisa. Lisa and I spent most of the day shopping for groceries and serving dishes. I almost had a breakdown when I realized that nowhere in the NE UK can you buy cornmeal. Cornmeal is a pretty important part of cornbread which is a pretty important part of cornbread dressing! After a couple of hours of internet searching I found maize meal which is apparently a close substitute for cornmeal. To get this maize meal I had to take a bus 25 minutes away, ask a very nice English gentleman to help me in the store and then wait in the rain for a bus ride back home. What a memory! The cornbread looks good and that is what matters.

Mike and Lisa are from Michigan so there a couple of more northern dishes like mashed potatoes and regular green beans that we are having plus they are trying southern dressing, gravy and homemade macaroni and cheese which they have not had before.

On Friday night we are going to a potluck Thanksgiving diner with about 8 other American couples. Everyone is bringing 2 dishes for the others to try. This should be interesting as well since the majority of the couples are from either the north or the southwest. I am making cornbread dressing, gravy and sweet potatoes. I hope they eat it!

Lisa and I are planning to take a lot of pictures tomorrow so I will post those on Friday. I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving.

See you all in 4 weeks!A.

PS - Thank you to Mom and Meme for the recipe help. So far everything is delicious!

2 comments:

Girl, this thanksgiving away from is making me pretty thankful for thanksgivings at home! haha...it's weird! It sounds like you're going to have a wonderful time! I'm so excited that you found the maize stuff for your dressing! Oh the lengths we'll go for good food! I'm at, my team leader, Chris's house in Orange, CA (the OC!) and they do things way different. Some of us girls made a request for Sweet Potatoes so I know those will be good but I'm pretty sure I'll stil have to eat stuffing...Well, I want you to know that I'm so thankful for you and I love you like crazy! Thinking about Christmas makes me so excited that I start crying almost everytime I think about it! I can't wait to hear your voice. :) oh, hear come those tears again! Alright, have an incredible Thanksgiving and I'll see you in 4 weeks!

Happy Thanksgiving Amber and Chris.. I just know your meal has turned out just great. I hope the maize ??? was good. I don't even know what that is. Did everyone like your mac and cheese? In reality, there are not a lot of people that know how to make the real thing. We have become a quick fix society. Out of a box or out of the fozen section. Keep up the good work, and Chris will get fat and sassy like your PaPa from all that good food. (Just kidding.) Love ya, and will see you Christmas, just a few weeks away. Love, MeMe

My name is Amberly. I am a child of God, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend and an expat. This is the story of our journey from Atlanta, Georgia to Oxford, England and all the stops along the way.